Jury orders Samsung to pay Apple another $290 million

Samsung's smartphones (right) were found to have infringed on Apple's patents for the iPhone in a ruling last August.

A California jury has ordered Samsung to pay Apple $290 million dollars more for infringing on its patents.

Thursday's ruling is the latest judgment in a serpentine case that has been ongoing for more than two years. In August 2012, the Korean smartphone maker was found to have violated several of Apple's patents, and a jury ruled that Samsung owed Apple more than $1 billion in damages. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh later said the jury had miscalculated the award, and about $450 million worth of those damages were reconsidered in a new trial.

After Thursday's ruling, Samsung now owes Apple another $290 million in damages on top of the $640 million in damages that Judge Koh upheld in the original damages trial.

Apple(AAPL) argued it deserved another $379 million, while Samsung said it owed only about $52 million.

The damages total is now $935 million -- close to the original $1.05 billion figure.

But to further complicate the issue, both companies have appealed the original August 2012 ruling ... so Thursday's decision could mean little or nothing.

Apple and Samsung are embroiled in dozens of patent disputes in courts around the world, but Thursday's ruling involves the biggest case. Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly" copying both the iPhone and iPad for its own devices, including the hardware design as well as software features like double-tap zooming. Samsung countersued, accusing Apple of infringing on its own software patents.

It could take years for the lawsuits to be resolved. And so it goes in the litigious world of smartphone patents.